Weekend Nachos — Still

Relapse presents the 4th studio album from the hardcore juggernaut known as Weekend Nachos. Hailing for Chi-town, this long-running quartet has been weaving the powerviolence, fastcore, hardcore/punk thread for a near decade now. It’s no surprise really. Coming from an area that spawned such acts as: Charles Bronson, MK Ultra, Kungfu Rick, and Hewhocorrupts, they had much fertile ground to cull from. Over the years they’ve honed their sound, tightened things up, become more nuanced, yet have retained their viciousness.

Still offers twelve ragers in little over 20 minutes. Sonically, think a modern iteration of Charles Bronson meets His Hero is Gone, of course with clean, beefier production that Relapse brings. You know the deal - a caustic mixture of playing fast as fuck, colliding with hardcore breakdowns, sludge metal interludes, and occasional gang vocals thrown in for good measure.

It’s no holds barred right out the gates with the 45 second opening track, “Sickened No More.” Played with blazing speed, pissed as fuck vocals, and strong drumming, it’s on! The next couple tracks, slows things down ever so slightly with chunkier, more metallic offerings “No Idols and No Heroes” and “S.C.A.B.” The album’s second longest track, “Watch You Suffer” starts off fast and vicious only to dive into thick ass sludge metal. The fact that they can so seamless alternate between fast and sludgier, slower tracks is to their credit. “You’re Not Punk” is another pissed litte track (under a minute) pointing fingers at the faux punks that go to shows just to talk shit. The penultimate track “Broken Mirror” adds some almost shoe-gazey guitar weaving in the backdrop.

This album is very reminiscent to an album I reviewed earlier this year, Dead in the Dirt’s “The Blind Hole,” which isn’t a surprise as Andy Nelson (of Weekend Nachos) produced it. I liked that album and I also very much enjoyed Still. Even as my interest in hardcore has ebbed and flowed over the years, it’s album’s like Still that keep me interested and checking in to see what the contemporary hardcore/punk scene has to offer.